Women's Movements, Plural Legal Systems and the Botswana Constitution : How Reform Happens

Hasan, Tazeen ; Tanzer, Ziona

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ADOPTION;    ADVOCACY;    AFRICAN STUDIES;    AGE OF MARRIAGE;    AMENDMENTS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6690
RP-ID  :  WPS6690

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Collective action by women'snetworks has been a strong driver of legislative change inmany countries across the world. Women's groups inBotswana have used advocacy tools such as testing theimplementation of gender equality principles in the nationalcourt system. In 1992, women's legal networks in theUnity Dow case successfully challenged discriminatorystatutory citizenship laws. This victory triggeredfar-reaching reforms of the citizenship law, family law, andeven the Constitution itself. Two decades later, anothersuccessful "test" case, the Mmusi case, haschallenged the customary law practice of favoring male heirsas contrary to constitutional principles of equality. Thepaper explores the role that judges and national courts playin implementing gender equality principles and upholdingstate commitments to the Convention on the Elimination ofDiscrimination against Women. The paper also highlights therole of governments in taking on the concerns of theircitizens and cementing the principle of equality in nationallegal frameworks. The backdrop to this process is a plurallegal system where both customary and statutory laws andcourts exist side by side. How women negotiate their rightsthrough these multiple systems by coalition building andusing "good practice" examples from othercountries is important to understand from a policyperspective and how this "bottom-up" approach cancontribute to women's economic empowerment in othernational contexts.